The disclosure relates to a specimen measurement apparatus and a specimen aspiration method.
As illustrated in FIG. 30, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-114419 (Patent Literature 1) describes a specimen measurement apparatus, which includes a first syringe pump CL1, a second syringe pump CL2, and a third syringe pump CL3. A single motor 310 drives the first syringe pump CL1 and the second syringe pump CL2. The third syringe pump CL3 is connected to the second syringe pump CL2 in series. The first syringe pump CL1 sends sheath liquid of a flow rate Q to a sheath flow cell FC. Along with the sheath liquid of the flow rate Q by the first syringe pump CL1, specimen liquid of a flow rate Qs from a specimen container C1 flow into the sheath flow cell FC.
The sheath flow cell FC discharges mixed liquid of specimen liquid and sheath liquid. The flow rate of the mixed liquid is Q+Qs. In the discharged mixed liquid, the mixed liquid of the flow rate Q is aspirated by the second syringe pump CL2, and the mixed liquid of the flow rate Qs is aspirated by the third syringe pump CL3.
When some specimen measurement apparatus aspirates a specimen, the aspiration quantities may differ depending on what is being measured. Therefore, it is desirable that a specimen measurement apparatus be able to deal with aspirating specimens with different quantities. In Patent Literature 1, despite different flow rates of the second syringe pump CL2 and the third syringe pump CL3, both syringe pumps are driven at the same time. The specimen measurement apparatus in Patent Literature 1 only has a simple aspiration mode, in which a certain amount of mixed liquid is aspirated. The total amount of the mixed liquid is the sum of flow rates of the syringe pump CL2 (Q) and the syringe pump CL3 (Qs), which is Q+Qs. Therefore, the specimen measurement apparatus of Patent Literature 1 can only handle aspirating specimens having a certain quantity of mixed liquid.